I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate- Romans 7

Romans 7: 15-25

When we read Romans chapter 7, many of us feel like we understand the reality that Paul is describing. He says, "I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate." Many of us have the experience of doing things we know aren't good for us. This is the experience of being stuck in an addiction. We often experience sin as a kind of addiction. We often only catch the sin when we look back on our actions, rather than in the moment. When we come to God in confession, we often bring the same sorts of things to God over and over and over. We can feel ourselves stuck in this pattern of sinful behaviors. And so, we feel like Paul is describing our reality- "I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate."

Many people have read Romans chapter 7 and have felt their experience described. But Paul isn't actually addressing that psychological and spiritual reality. He's actually talking about theology and what it meant for Israel to exist with the Law, The Torah, and without Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

So, Paul isn't actually addressing that psychological reality that we feel is being reflected. That struggle is a real battle that all Christians experience, but that's not what Paul is actually getting at here. He is describing Israel's story here.

God gave Adam and Eve the direction to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And yet they were tricked by the serpent and eat the forbidden fruit. God warned Cain that sin was stalking him like an animal. In Genesis 4:7 we read, 

"Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you but you must rule over it." 

Cain receives instruction from God, and he kills his brother anyway. God rescues the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and gives them the Torah on Mount Sinai. But they broke it as soon as they received it, by building a golden calf and worshipping it.

Paul is describing Israel's story. Even with God's teaching, they don't have the ability to follow it. They find there is something pushing them to act contrary to God's will.

And this leads to the experience of exile. Adam and Eve are exiled from the garden. Cain is exiled to wander. Israel is exiled into Babylon.

But this doesn't mean the Law is bad. The Law is good. The direction and teaching of God is good. The problem is their inability to act according to God's will. And why was Israel not able to act according to God's will? It was because there was another power active within them because they belong to the flesh of Adam.

And so, Israel's inability to follow the Law isn’t a problem with the Law. There's even a sense in which Israel's inability to follow the law isn't Israel's fault. … They have been ensnared and captured by another power. They've been captured by the power of Sin, and so Sin's power is active within their being.

The power of Sin is a spiritual disease. It is a kind of active force within our world. A power. In Genesis, sin is described like a vicious animal that is stalking Cain. It is associated with death, and hostile spiritual beings who are enemies of God. So, Sin is not just a bad thing you do. Sin is a power or a disease that grabs a hold of a human being. Humanity found itself enslaved under the power of Sin.

In a sense, the Law is straining to try to help Israel to live according to God's will, but the Law is unable to do it. The Torah cannot break the power of Sin. Christ and God's Spirit are able to do what the Law was not able to do.

That's Paul's argument. So, Paul is describing the experience of Israel under the Torah, but without Christ, without the Spirit living within them.

Israel knows what is good. Israel knows the Torah. Israel wants to do the good. They want to follow God's will as expressed in the Torah. But Sin, as a disease, as a cosmic power, even uses the Law to enslave Israel. Torah can diagnose the disease, but can't cure it. The good Torah is hijacked by Sin. It takes the good Law and twists it into a weapon. So instead of allowing the Torah to train a person towards love of God and neighbor, a person can become full of pride for following rules. Like the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee prays, "Thank you that I'm not like this tax collector." Which is hardly what the Law was meant to produce in a person. Following the Law has become a reason to become full of pride rather than love. … The Torah is meant to be like a scalpel. In a surgeon's hand it can bring healing, but in the hands of Sin it can bring death.

We can sometimes feel like Romans 7 is describing our experience, but it's actually not where we are. We have this kind of inner conflict, but this actually isn't our theological reality. Romans 7 is describing bondage, it's slavery, and that's not where we are in God's a story.

Our conflict has to do with God’s Kingdom not having fully arrived in its fullness yet. We are dealing with Spiritual Growth. We are growing into Christ-likeness. We're not fully there yet. We're on the path to it. The tension between where we are called to be and where we are is the source of our inner conflict. We are awaiting the fullness that God has promised us. And that creates tension within us as we face the reality of the world we're in.

But we are no longer slaves to Sin, as if Christ hasn't come. The struggle we face is not evidence of our slavery. Romans 7 is describing the struggle of someone without the Spirit. Romans 8 actually describes the struggle of someone with the Spirit.

In Romans 8 Paul says that 

“we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - for if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God, are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a Spirit of adoption. Where we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ - if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

So, Paul is saying that there continues to be a fight with the flesh. We continue to live in a place of struggle. We are to put to death the deeds of the fallen flesh, and follow the way of the Spirit. And we will suffer with Christ if we want to be glorified with him.

Paul goes on to say in Romans chapter 8, 

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed in us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God."

 He says that 

"the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies”

The situation Paul is describing in Romans 7 doesn't leave us with much hope. Defeat is inevitable. There is no power to overcome.

But that is not the situation we're in. We're no longer enslaved to sin. There is a struggle, but it's different than what he's describing in Romans chapter 7. Our struggle has to do with Romans 8. It has to do with the fact that we live in a world that has not been fully overcome by the reality of God yet. We are dealing with the continued presence of the world, the flesh, and the devil that fights against God and we experience that battle because we belong to God. We experience the battle between the flesh and the spirit. We experience the reality that the Kingdom has not come in its fullness yet. And God is calling us into deeper growth, and growth comes with a certain level of discomfort.

So, if you're struggling, that doesn't mean that you're still enslaved to sin, as Paul describes in Romans 7. Your struggle means that the Spirit is at work in you. Romans 7 describes slavery, but that's not our reality as Christians. We do experience struggle, but that struggle is not slavery. We still struggle because we are still tempted, harassed, and assaulted by these powers. But you struggle as a free person not a slave. The Christian life is a kind of warfare. … Those powers are trying to draw humanity back into a Romans 7 existence, where we are once again in bondage to Sin as slaves. But you're not a slave, you're a soldier.

As Christians, as those who belong to Christ, who have received the Spirit, we struggle, but we are not condemned. Paul says, 

"Wretched man that I am," 

but he also says, 

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." 

These are not contradictions. This is the Christian reality: that we continue to struggle, we continue to grow, we continue to learn, but not in a way that we are destroyed or enslaved.

You might feel powerless but that's actually a lie. You feel tempted and that's a part of spiritual warfare. You might even fall but you do that as a free person who can get back up. You struggle and that is the path of growth into Christ's-likeness. … What Christ has done for us doesn't free us from the struggle. It frees us to fight as free people against the powers that would enslave us.

You are being transformed. The Spirit is making you like Christ. Your disordered inner realities are being healed, and the enemies of God are in the process of being defeated once and for all. You are not a slave fighting for freedom. You are a beloved child of God fighting as a free person, as a soldier of Christ in spiritual warfare. And the Spirit who has begun this healing work in you, will bring it to completion. AMEN